Bright Ideas

Imagine the frustration. You receive a new set of corporate stationery from your printer You open the box to see your new corporate image which is going to convey all manner of professionalism to your customers and propel you to that next level.

Then you spot a mistake.

Surely its not like that on everything?! But it is. All 2000 invoices, all 2000 compliment slips and everyone of your 3000 letterheads. You check the signed proof. The mistake was on the design all along but you missed it.

Darn it.

Your printer says “Sorry but you proofed it” but surely after all the business you have given them over the years they will be able to help you out somehow?! Discount on the reprint or sell the stock or something.

Nope. “Sorry your fault your problem.”

You are fuming. So you start thinking how can I fix this? Labels, its not a big mistake if I just get labels printed up and stick one on every time we send things. Great.

So you phone a few printers and they give you the price for the labels its just as much as the bleedin’ stationery.

You phone and ask the local printer in Yellow Pages and are met with a similar response. “They will not save you much; it will look tacky to send that out with your new logo.” Your heart sinks.

Then you hear the question “Have you got all your letterheads?”

You spark up thinking, glimmer of hope. “Yes”

“Tell you what bring them in. We could chop the top and bottom off the letterheads to make your compliment slips that way your not paying for more paper than you need.

“Brilliant, what will it cost to do it all?”

“About 1/3^rd of what you paid originally”

Relief washes over you. A very bad day turned brighter.

PrintMatters. We do more.

01356 625033 enquiries@printmatters.info

Flyers distribution

Last week I discussed the effectiveness of one of the simplest promotional tools around. Flyers.

We constantly promote ourselves as a “print solutions provider”, what the hell does that mean I hear you ask? Well put simply we do more. More than just print.

Having hundreds or thousands of flyers is one thing, but they are no use to anyone sitting in a box in your cupboard. As a business owner you don’t have the time to sort out who gets the flyers where and when. We can do all that for you.

Not only will we consult with you, design and print your flyers we will also deliver them to your potential customers taking the time and effort to ensure that your message is not only created and printed, its delivered, driving new customers to your business.

What does it cost? Well if we deal with our immediate local area; to print and deliver flyers to 94-96% of the households in Brechin it will cost you from only £299.For Montrose it will cost from only £439. That’s to print and deliver 7,000 flyers and apart from writing the cheque you will not have to lift a finger.

Last week we mentioned some of the little gems that make your promotional materials stand out from the crowd;

Heavier stock to reduce throwaways and increase retention

Coupons to measure effectiveness and generate footfall

Pairing up your promotional activities through advertising, door drops, in store promotions and even seasonal “on van” promotions or adverts to maximise exposure. Remember it takes 5 sights of an advert before it registers with a customer.

We don’t just print, we design, we consult, we market, we distribute, we deliver.

Come and speak to PrintMatters….we do more.

01356 625033

Flyers as a promotional tool

One of our customers based in the depths of Englandshire has a plumbing business and is always competing for business with a plethora of competitors.

In a conversation with PrintMatters he had asked displayed his frustration at not being able to gain an edge over the competition. When we had mentioned to him promotional flyers and door drops his reply was pretty curt in that there was no way he could afford the flyers and the delivery.

When we hinted to him at the actual cost he was slightly taken aback. So much so that he was looking at larger quantities.

The majority of promotional flyers are printed on 130gsm paper but for this we went for 170gsm with a silk finish. The reason for this is that the recipient will always get a feel for the professionalism of a company is from its promotional material.

In order to increase retention we advised a coupon that would do two things;

1. Firstly allow the company to measure the response from the flyers

2. And secondly give the recipient a reason to hold on to the flyer until it is needed rather than bin it.

Using a distribution company the flyers can be handed out door to door in a designated post code area in a matter of weeks.

The response was incredible so much so that he is looking to do another larger mailing expanding his initial area and slightly changing the offer.

So how much was it? For printing 20,000 flyers on 170gsm matt finish paper it was only £429 which he recouped very quickly. We can do larger runs like his next one of 70,000 or the more modest runs of 5000 for £149.

PrintMatters. Where our only limit is your imagination.

Award winners!

On Wednesday night Bill and Sandra our illustrious leaders were guests of Dundee College at the Business to College Awards ceremony in Edinburgh.

We have been working closely with Dundee College for about 9 months now and they have been instrumental in training and developing our workforce through knowledge transfer schemes and training courses.

One of which, you will all be amused to hear, Bill is on called Leadership for Growth.

Based on the work undertaken with PrintMatters and the results achieved in the project, both Dundee College and PrintMatters were successful in winning the award for Impact in the private sector and the College went on to win College of the year 2010.

Through all the training we have been receiving our workforce has increased production capacity and it also means we can offer our extended services such as design and marketing to our normal print customers.

For your print requirement, no matter how large or small, give us a call on 01356 625033 where our only limit is your imagination.